Rising Stars: Meet Kevin Andrew

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Andrew.

Hi Kevin, we’re so excited to have you on the platform. Before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
“I don’t want you living in my basement your whole life, get a different degree” – my father.

Undergraduate and graduate degrees in Civil Engineering, years working in IT Corporate America, and successful Entrepreneur Business Exit. Lifelong Creative who followed the right path before finally questioning it. Now, I paint abstract artwork full-time with intention and a business mindset.

Creating art is a journey to find myself.

The simplicity of Proximity creates connections that forever change the trajectory of relationships or the composition of a painting. In the coworking space, I created and operated, I was driven to see how unrelated people working in the same space interacted, connected, and grew to produce something new together. Empowering people with opportunities and workspaces created unimaginable connections and success stories.

My drive for community building remains but is now applied within the boundaries of my canvas. Connections between colors, textures, tools, and techniques in the right empowering environment produce new and unseen compositions together. Underlying Intentions ranging from life lessons to therapy sessions influence these connections.

Underneath the intention, there is a raging evolution of self-exploration. My analytical mindset (self-identified as Virgo and an engineer by training) is constantly at war with my creative spirit. A process driven, goal oriented effort suppresses discomfort and self-doubt while creating. My analytical self protects my monetary focused ego, but my creative spirit knows better by constantly finding ways to bring me to the breaking point.

This Tension is prevalent throughout all my artwork, with a constant push/pull of control vs. intuition. Complicating further, this tension is mixed with dilemmas of internal Suppression playing out within the frame of each piece. Is it something my ego yearns for, ultimately leading to suffering or on the path to my true self? The struggle for permission builds pressure throughout my artwork, exploding in frustration at times.

When fear, frustration, and breaking points are embraced while creating, the tension-suppression-intention dance produces dynamic, energetic, and meaningful artwork I’m proud of. My creative spirit won the battle if I could not comprehend, replicate, or explain a painting I just finished. The more my creative spirit is empowered to express, the more comfortable I can create on the edge of breaking. I believe this space within my work will reveal my true self and purpose over time.

Without the encumbrances and formalities put on students through formal art education, I bring a unique skill set to my creative process from the mind of an engineer, creative, and entrepreneur. My artwork is an abstraction of sensations and emotions that connect with buyers on a visceral, relatable level. Being vulnerable and open about my work drives sales and helps me better understand my purpose.

My hope is by finding my self, I will be able to better figure out how to make a positive difference in this world.

We all face challenges, but would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I wanted to be an artist all my life, but I pursued civil engineering instead because it was the right path. I wanted to go to school for art, but my dad told me he didn’t want me living in his basement my whole life and go choose something else.

After an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and a master’s in Structural Engineering, I had my dream job in Chicago designing skyscrapers. However, I quickly realized I hated it. I never questioned my purpose or existence. I was on the path of school, career, retirement, dying, and calling it a life. There is nothing wrong with that path, but it just was not for me.

I was then thrown into IT consulting, working for a corporation in Charlotte, NC. I did project management and process improvement work for about three years. My analytical mindset training from college and ability to play well with others helped me in corporate America. Once again, it was one step closer to purpose, but it was still a far way off.

I was able to showcase my art at a hair salon gallery. There was an opening party for the work, and I had pretty low expectations for it all. However, a bunch of my family from around the US came to visit, friends showed up, and a bunch of strangers came. I sold most of the work. This salon/gallery gave me a space to be empowered to do my thing, and it forever changed my life.

Not only did I want more of these opportunities for myself, but I wanted to provide spaces for others to be empowered as well. From that spark, along with not doing well with authority, which I don’t respect, and my love for community building, I quit corporate America and started a coworking space called Advent Coworking.

This was in 2015, during the early days of coworking, when most people didn’t know what it meant or barely knew of WeWork. We focused on helping our members grow and connect. We grew from 4700 sqft to 30,000 sqft and had over 400 members over the course of 6.5 years. We had multiple event rooms, a podcast studio, a curated gallery, huge workspaces and offices, a library, and partnerships all over Charlotte. It was a wild ride before I sold the company to a local competitor. This was a bigger step to what I felt I should be doing, but it was not there completely.

After some soul searching, we decided I should try to become a full-time artist and see how it goes. The River Arts District in Asheville, NC, is a unique place to be a full-time artist. You have 300+ artists creating and displaying their work in 25 buildings bunched together over a couple-mile radius just south of downtown Asheville, NC, by 10 minutes. The concept of having a working studio space that was open to the public blew my mind. I could sell work directly to collectors.

It works so well in Asheville because of the high volume of tourists coming through every year. I read the artist’s way, and it recommended verbally saying what you’re going to do. Once you say it, be ready for the universe to provide opportunities; if you didn’t go through the doors that opened, they may never open again.

I took this to heart and committed to the universe out loud: “OK, I’m going to become a full-time artist. What do you f*cking got for me?” I honestly didn’t think much of it. 2 weeks later, I was able to get a working studio/gallery space in a coveted building in the River Arts District from an obscure connection, and it began! The sale of my business helped to support me for the first six months. Day one was very strange doing what I loved full-time.

Creating art is another business for me, and I’m treating it like one. However, it’s a balance of not letting business and making money completely destroy my creative process and freedom. I have since moved to a bigger, ground-level studio/gallery with storefront glass and my name on the window. I have not yet reached my monthly revenue goals, but it’s been less than 1.5 years, and I’m on track to get there.

I still wonder what would have happened if I had gone to school for art and who I am today. However, so much life has happened since then, and each step has helped shape me and prepare me to create and sell work. I am still wondering what my life purpose is. It’s the perfect combination of 3 parts:

1.) What are you passionate about and lose yourself in it?
2.) Other people find value in what you do.
3.) It helps other people.

Creating art is closest I have ever felt to my purpose, and I’m loving how my work is evolving.

The constant hustle of running an art business takes its toll when family and life commitments persist (in a good way).

I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I paint abstract artwork using acrylics and graffiti markers.

Every piece I create has an underlying story, motivation, or therapy session I’m working through. I want to make a difference in this world + searching for how. I paint, write, + collaborate to force myself to self reflect + grow.

Creating is an emotional roller coaster with an unknown ending most of the time. The feeling of doubt, remorse, and fear I have when painting always leads to a new step in my creative journey, and I have learned to embrace the chaos of creation. I naturally want to control all aspects of my life (I self-identified as Virgo and am an engineer by training). I use my art to break from my ego and force myself to create in ways that frustrate me.

After I finish this internal battle with myself, when I complete a painting, I have a moment of peace and levity. The feeling of creating something and not quite understanding how you did it is the most addicting thing on this planet. There is something more at play, something that must come out, and I am really trying to get out of the way most of the time.

Creating helps me get through a variety of life topics and events. I go to therapy, but sometimes my art helps me more. Once I complete a painting, write what it’s about, and share it with the world, I am almost free of it. I feel being vulnerable with my work to strangers and loved ones helps me grow.

Authenticity and relatability connect with people, and I think they attract them to my work. I am always amazed at who buys paintings about death, motherhood, or having a morning coffee. People relate to my work in ways I never can predict. Talking with them and hearing their opinion of the subject and my work helps me grow further. Self-serving or not, it’s wonderful to have a stronger connection to something I created.

My art is an expression of my life. I need it. Just looking into the forest inspires hundreds of paintings. Family, world events, ethics, politics, equitable conversations, self-growth, self-reflection, appreciation, etc., are just a few of the topics I explore. I don’t think I could stop painting tomorrow for the rest of my life and be OK mentally or physically.

Sometimes, before I go to sleep, an image of a painting will flash into my mind, and I feel I must paint it. I have no idea the driver for these images, but I appreciate them when they come.

Heavily inspired from the immediacy + colorful imagery of graffiti, I began my career with spray paint. I’m also inspired by the Art Nouveau movement with its organic, flowing shapes + definitive, bold outlines.

I now work with acrylics + markers pulling from these inspirations, focusing on expression, + wading into the unknown.

Much of my work is influenced by the energetic brushwork of abstract expressionist artists in the early to mid-20th century. Arthur B. Carles, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Hans Hofmann, + Jane Piper.

I start each painting with a plan:

Color: I pick with yellow, red, and blue I’m going to start with. I usually then find an anchor color that eventually makes its way into every color in that painting.
Layering: I put together a layering plan to follow from the beginning to the end of the painting
Meaning: I always have a meaning for what I’m about to create
Title: I have a rough idea of the painting’s title before it’s started
Beginning of the painting: I usually do a base layer for my paintings with graffiti markers and high-flow acrylics just to begin the process of letting go of my ego

As Mike Tyson says, “It’s nice to have a plan until you get punched in the faith.” My paintings NEVER go how I painted them. I’m not usually happy with the ones that do. I usually get 80% complete, and then things deviate wildly. In the past, I would control and contain this intuition. It’s scary, frustrating, and usually makes me angry. But I keep pushing through the unknown darkness of painting. I’ve almost painted over so many of my works near the 95% completion point.

Then, out of nowhere, one stroke, one scrap of a color, which I’m worried about, completely makes the painting. It’s like, f*ck yes, this is it! It just clicks. I cannot explain it. Even the meaning has changed for me because I heard a song that got me down a very different thought process. It still related to my original intention of creation, but it was taken much further and darker than I originally wanted to go.

What are your plans for the future?
I am planning to be represented by 10 galleries throughout the country and internationally. I would like to move into the beta gallery sphere as soon as possible, and continue to work on museum connections as well.

I have many things I want to paint and many shows I’d like to create, but time is my enemy at the moment, and two small kids are commanding my life.

I have plans in the far future to create an Art Nouveau-influenced gallery lounge. It’ll be a place for people to connect, view and purchase artwork, and have an experience. It will be hauntingly beautiful with a strict atheistic vibe.

Pricing:

• Custom Commissions are $1.65 per sq of canvas surface.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.creativekevin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creative_keving/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089302058122&mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-giriunas-99b27820
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@creative_keving?_t=8a0SbocZW1b&_r=1